Problems remain with the rudder design of Airbus jets like the A300 model that crashed in the Rockaways five years ago, the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday.

Government agencies in the United States and Europe have made “little progress” in improving the rudder system since the Nov. 12, 2001, crash of American Airlines Flight 587, which killed 260 passengers and crew and five people on the ground.

Two years ago, an NTSB probe mostly blamed the crash on the plane’s first officer for his “unnecessary and excessive rudder pedal inputs” – in other words, pushing the pedals too hard.

Pilots are now aware that pushing hard on the pedals can be dangerous, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said yesterday.

But the Federal Aviation Administration has not done enough “to ensure that the rudder system provides aircraft with safe handling characteristics,” Rosenker said.

The NTSB also wants the European Aviation Safety Agency to require France-based Airbus “to modify its rudder systems on certain of its aircraft” that were susceptible to hazardous pedal inputs.